The executive director of the city Ethics Commission is accusing city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong’s office of trying to undercut the quasi-independent agency’s proposed expansion of its activities.

Leong, in a statement, strongly denied the charges by commission Executive Director Chuck Totto.

The clash raises questions about the role of the commission, its authority and responsibilities, and to whom, if anyone, it is accountable. The City Charter states the commission is attached to the Department of Corporation Counsel "for administrative purposes only."

Whether that gives Leong the authority to scrutinize the commission’s budget appears to be at issue.

Totto, the commission’s legal counsel the past 14 years, said he understands if the administration’s budget officials, Managing Director Ember Shinn or the City Council raise issue with the agency’s budget and ultimately make changes based on budgetary constraints.

"But we don’t need to have the corporation counsel coming in and saying, ‘Well, you can’t have this and you can’t have that because this is how I interpret what you should be doing,’" he told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser after the commission’s monthly meeting Monday. "It doesn’t make sense. They don’t have the right to do that. And it’s not good government."

Leong, in a statement, said all city agencies are subject to scrutiny and that the commission’s budget should not be treated any differently.

"Any allegation that inquiry and justification for budget requests are efforts to erode the valuable work of the Ethics Commission is false," she said. "The budget directive established on all executive branch agencies restricting the increases in the annual budget, was implemented by the Department of the Corporation Counsel upon its administratively attached agency, the Ethics Commission, and is the means by which the administration has sought to manage increases in next fiscal year’s (city operating) budget."

The commission’s responsibility, according to the City Charter, is to enforce ethics laws relating to city employees. It has the authority to impose civil fines or recommend disciplinary action for violations. It also advises and makes recommendations to city employees and officials, as well as the public, on ethical questions, and educates city officers and employees on how to perform their duties in an ethical manner.

Commission members, who are appointed by the mayor and approved by the Council, hire and fire the executive director.

Totto, during the commission meeting, told members that Leong’s office "could use ‘budget management’ to undermine the operations of the commission" and indicated that it already may be trying to do so.

Specifically, he said, Leong’s office has:

» Attempted to shoot down a proposed increase in the commission’s budget.

» Tried to influence how the commission evaluates Totto and others on his four-person staff.

» Begun an audit of the commission’s contract with its newly hired investigator.

» Threatened to withhold approval of its budget unless attorneys from Leong’s office are allowed to review all budget communications between the commission and its staff.

Asked by the Star-Advertiser to address each charge, Leong did not do so her in her statement.

The commission, despite testimony from Leong to the contrary, agreed to give merit raises to Totto and Associate Legal Counsel Laurie Wong for the current year. Totto got a 1 percent increase, to $102,368, and Wong an 8 percent increase, to $75,960.

The commission held off until next month, however, a decision on a proposed increase in the staff budget to $480,000 from the current year’s $380,000 allocation.

Totto said most of the new money would go to hire a third attorney for the staff who would also act as assistant executive director.

The position, for essentially the fifth employee of the commission, is necessary because of the ethics panel’s growing caseload, Totto said. Complaints and requests for advice rose 13.6 percent, to 500 in fiscal year 2013 from 440 in 2012, he said. Four months into the 2014 fiscal year, requests are on pace to rise another 26 percent, he said.

The administration has opposed the proposed budget increase, arguing that all agencies and departments are being asked to hold the line except for matters dealing with roads, transit-oriented development and park upgrades.

Leong said the "fiscal realities" the commission faces are not unique.

"Many agencies are experiencing heavy workloads with new added responsibilities and with reduced personnel," she said.

Totto pointed out that the Department of the Corporation Counsel, tasked with providing legal advice to city agencies, the mayor and the Council, has begun to offer advice to the administration on ethical matters and has refused to tell his staff what that advice may be, citing attorney-client privilege.